232 DAYS AND NIGHTS BY THE DESERT. 



valuable beasts. It is common for us, the residents 

 of Great Britain, to rail against Americans for having 

 permitted the buffalo to become exterminated on 

 their Western prairies. Wherever we have gone we 

 have done likewise. Does the adage about those 

 that live in glass houses never occur to us ? 



On returning to camp, I found that things had 

 not gone smoothly during my absence. William, the 

 big Zulu, had been detected in purloining sugar and 

 other stores to give to his lady love, so was now a 

 prisoner ; the bullocks had been permitted, through 

 the want of attention of the herd, to enter some of 

 the natives' gardens, and do no end of mischief to 

 their melon crops, for which injury Madame Bareekey 

 demanded a startling indemnity, not an iota of which 

 charge would she abate. Arguing with an angry 

 woman is ever futile. This instance, although the 

 lady was black, was no exception to the rule ; so high 

 words and abusive epithets on her side were becom- 

 ing dominant, when two strangers arrived. One 

 was poor Paddy, the other a trader whom I had 

 known for some years. The former had fallen in 

 with some of his favourite Boers, who had almost 

 stripped him, maltreated him fearfully, and left him 

 upon the veldt to die. Fortunately his present 

 comrade found him, and relieved and sheltered him 

 in his dreadful plight. But why had they sought 

 me ? Well, to give me information that these free- 

 booting scoundrels had heard of my whereabouts, 



